That entire thing was shot. The body is the frame, so in that kind of a mess its all pretty much done. The 601 and 627 are both stored in different locations now which leads me to believe theres intentions to do different things with one and the other. One is stored in a line with stuff thats set to be sold/scrapped and the other is set in the "I dont care zone" where the aem=7s went and had all of their horns and numberboards stolen.

Cascades trains are still running along the shore route. There are 4 roundtrips a day plus the Starlight. I heard that the service will stay at 4x a day once the route is switched back to the Bypass because there aren't enough trainsets available to cover the 6x a day schedule.

Vincent wrote:Cascades trains are still running along the shore route. There are 4 roundtrips a day plus the Starlight. I heard that the service will stay at 4x a day once the route is switched back to the Bypass because there aren't enough trainsets available to cover the 6x a day schedule.

If Trains 511/513 and train 508 (PDX-EUG) were cancelled, that would free up a trainset that could potentially make two PDX-SEA round-trips and make an insane amount of money, but instead it sits in a yard in Eugene for over five hours a day, not making a single penny nor carrying a single passenger. On top of being an already very poor performing train with miserable ridership.

There's other ways Amtrak/WSDOT/ODOT could dramatically improve these trains but there seems to be no real desire to. A good example is the southbound train 501 arriving at PDX just before 11:00 AM, and sits around doing nothing (costing money but not making money) until 3:00 PM. That's plenty of time for another revenue, money making, passenger hauling trip back to Seattle with just a 30 minute layover in Portland to kick the riders off, board the new riders, a quick top off of the gas tank, maybe a squeegy on the loco windows, and highball it. 280 passengers at $40 = $11,200 in revenue for virtually zero additional cost. $4 million a year. Enough to pay for a replacement 1402 in just over a year.

The Quick fix is the 2 unused WI Taglo sets at Beech Grove,need to moved west and put in service!
Reported hangup is the FRA wavier to use the sets "as is",without the Door interlock trainline that's now required.
(ie Door open,loco cannot move)

Vincent wrote:Cascades trains are still running along the shore route. There are 4 roundtrips a day plus the Starlight. I heard that the service will stay at 4x a day once the route is switched back to the Bypass because there aren't enough trainsets available to cover the 6x a day schedule.

If Trains 511/513 and train 508 (PDX-EUG) were cancelled, that would free up a trainset that could potentially make two PDX-SEA round-trips and make an insane amount of money, but instead it sits in a yard in Eugene for over five hours a day, not making a single penny nor carrying a single passenger. On top of being an already very poor performing train with miserable ridership.

There's other ways Amtrak/WSDOT/ODOT could dramatically improve these trains but there seems to be no real desire to. A good example is the southbound train 501 arriving at PDX just before 11:00 AM, and sits around doing nothing (costing money but not making money) until 3:00 PM. That's plenty of time for another revenue, money making, passenger hauling trip back to Seattle with just a 30 minute layover in Portland to kick the riders off, board the new riders, a quick top off of the gas tank, maybe a squeegy on the loco windows, and highball it. 280 passengers at $40 = $11,200 in revenue for virtually zero additional cost. $4 million a year. Enough to pay for a replacement 1402 in just over a year.

It isnt that simple. Trains need to be serviced. And only having 30 minutes means if there IS any delays or snags enroute that will end up making a cascade of delays for any trains later in the day the set would use. At some point trains need interiors cleaned between runs. i dont know the distance/time these trains are running but nothing on the NEC gets a 30 minute turn except maybe a Keystone set and that continues to prove to be a problem because the bathrooms run out of water and the trash bins fill up. And the toilets start to nearly overflow.

wigwag: it sounds like you’re saying, dump the Eugene-Seattle-Vancouver Talgo turns and either use a dedicated, smaller trainset that only runs in the Willamette Valley, or abandon all Eugene service but for buses and LD service. How close am I to the mark?